Monday 29th November 2004
There have been reports today that Ex Oxford midfield genius Jim Magilton is eyeing up the managers job at the Kassam Stadium and would relish a chance to be Player Manager, Magilton has always expressed how he would like to finish his career back at Oxford and even stated that when he was interviewed after the friendly back in July this year, I know how much it would please one certain supporter who is totally in love with him, but to see him back on the field playing for Oxford would be awesome, whether as Manager or not.
Sunday 28th November 2004
Sorry Due to server problems and going to White Hart lane to see a crap side, this has been delayed, sorry again, blame Graham Butler(Oxford yid).
Jingle bells Jingle bells Jingle all the way, ol what fun it is to sing when Oxford Win (FULL STOP) Away, The joyous result at The Saunders Honda Stadium yesterday put a huge smile back on everyone's face, the Supporters who were again absolutely magnificent in getting behind the team, the press boys who had forgotten what it was like to leave the ground happy and the Players and management, when the crowd had dispersed and we were the only ones in the ground the players came back on the pitch for their warm down and to see smiles on all the players faces was a joy to behold, Darren Patterson hugged everyone of us, he was so delighted at the win and how the players battled for him, only one horrendous mistake nearly blew it for the U's after a great 1st half display in which the U's went one up on 15 minutes after a deft chip from Lee Bradbury was deflected over the Chester defensive line in the path of a waiting Mark E'Beyer who had timed his run to perfection, from a few yards out clipped the ball across the Sprawled Chris Mackensie in the Chester goal and sent the U's fans into Ecstasy at the other end, The U's tho could not hold on until half time and made one of the biggest howlers of the season, Leo Roget intercepted a through ball into the area from Chester and instead of clearing the ball just hit it straight to the waiting Chester man unmarked on the penalty spot to slot the ball into an empty net, The alarm bells rang then as it looked for a while like the U's were going to buckle, but they held their ground and even came close to adding to their tally before they finished shooting at the english end of the ground, in the 2nd half shooting at the Welsh end of the ground it was all hands to the pumps as United completely took the game to their League Two fellow strugglers, but it was after the hour mark when all the damage was done, from completely out of nowhere and even fooling the Cameraman(!!!) Matt Robinson struck the ball from all of 35 yards and the ball took a wicked deflection off a player on the edge of the area and looped over Mackensie to send the U's fans behind that goal into total bedlam, Robbo said after the game that he had waited for something like that to happen all of his career, Tho the Stadium announcer gave the goal to TOMMY MOONEY!!, ok the bald head got him confused so I am giving the goal to CHRIS WILLIAMS (hahaha), (67 mins 2-1) but if you thought that was the end of the match think again, the U's were constantly putting pressure on Chester and caught them on the break many times, Mooney or was it Robinson:-) was replaced by Oxford's own pop idol Craig Davies and his sprightly presence ripped away every bit of self esteem that Chester had left and in the dying minutes he completely sold Ex U's man Phil Bolland as he turned to go back up the wing and back flicked the ball leaving Bolly behind, Davies then put in an inch perfect cross for Bradders who just managed to nod the ball back to a waiting Steve Basham too complete the scoring by firing the ball past Mackensie on the half volley to finish off any chance of a Chester comeback, Basham ran to celebrate with the U's fans and as the ball came back out he hoofed it into the crowd as he ran across goal, the ref blew his whistle straight away and booked Bash who was one of 11 players booked in the match so both clubs may be called up in front of the FA for having 5 or over yellow carded in the game which the rule book states, the Ref seemed to lose track of the game at times, but forgetting all that, this game and the display was so much better and just like the Oxford United we all know and Love, maybe now we have turned the corner, just a shame that we don't have a game now for 10 days, but the players can have that break to recharge their batteries and put in some seriously hard work, and as for a new manager....Forget it, I would give Patto a real chance to show he deserves the job and give him a trial until the New Year before giving him the Job FULL TIME, 3-1, Magnificent.
Give Ian Rush credit, he didn't shy away from the press after and even had time to have his picture took with me, another legend added to my ever increasing list..
What a Day!!!.
Rushie and myself after the game at Chester.
Mark E'beyer makes it 1-0 at Chester.
Saturday 27th November 2004
Oxford travel to Chester City today to face a legend, Ian Rush who is now manager at the Deva Stadium since the departure of Mark Wright, The U's go into the game with no fresh faces, Only Jamie Brooks and he is as good as a new player, lets hope he gets the starting place he deserves, there is no pressure on him, he just needs to go out and do what comes naturally, given time we will see the Jamie Brooks of old, but don't expect it all straight away.
Jamie Brooks goes on last week and gets groped by Official(Female tho)...lol
Tuesday 23rd November 2004
Sir Alex Ferguson manages his 1000 match in charge of Manchester United tonight, 18 years after his first game in charge, Against the REAL United-Oxford at the Manor Ground, Oxford coming out on top beating them 2-0 before a packed Manor Ground, how we would love those times again.
Monday 22nd November 2004
There were reports yesterday in a Sunday paper that Oxford were interested in Leroy Rosenior as their next Manager as Chairman Firoz Kassam is a huge fan of his, would he drop down a division though.?
Sunday 21st November 2004
After frantic defending on Darren Patterson opening match as Caretaker manager the U's went down to a freaky goal, right on 90 minutes, Gallimore's shot beat the diving Chris Tardif, but it hit the post and bounced back and hit Tardif on the head, had there been any justice in the world it would have gone out, but when you are near the bottom the ball is only going to go into the net and after that the fans disappeared, 4204 watched this end to end game (212 from Rochdale), but with all the ball Oxford had they only forced a corner just before half time and it was almost an hour before they had their 1st shot on goal, United clearly missed Mooney who was out with a chest infection, Basham and Bradbury were up front, Bradders had been stripped of the captains armband and Paul Wanless proudly wore it, but for all the days woes it was on the hour mark that the moment had come, Every fan in the ground stood with a tear in their eyes as Jamie Brooks stood on the touchline to come on approximately 940 days after his last league match, when he did the ovation he received was like something the Kassam Stadium has never heard before, the wonder boy was home after the worst journey possible, every Oxford fan in the ground was as proud as punch for him, the 1st time he touched the ball was a piece of the magic that he produced before his illness so we knew he was back, Jamie had a couple of chances and deserved a penalty after he was brought down in the area, but it wasn't too be and the U's now sit just 3 points off the relegation zone with 6 of our next 7 matches being against teams in the bottom half of the division, Christmas could be a great one with all those points, a bloody miserable one with no points from them games.
More with Pictures later after some more Football
Wednesday 17th November 2004
So the big question is:- Will Oxford have any new blood in the team to face Rochdale for the 2nd time in 8 days, with speculation about Paul McCarthy's return to the Kassam being No 1 on the agenda, Many feel the Darren Patterson will weald the axe and will make a few changes to the team for this crunch league game, Jamie Brooks who came on as a late sub could even get longer or start and So could Chris Hackett.
Went out to watch Banbury vs Aylesbury last night at the Spencer Stadium, it finished 1-1, Howard Forinton getting the goal for Banbury, many were saying that Kevin Brock should go for the vacant managers job at the Kassam Stadium...Matt Brandish came on for Banbury in the 2nd half and Dr Who scored for Aylesbury (Colin Baker).
More Later
Sunday 14th November 2004
Breaking News 4.10pm
Graham Rix has been asked to take an upstairs role at OUFC and Darren Patterson will be taking over as Manager of the club until Firoz Kassam gets back into the country in 3 weeks time.
Darren Patterson who replaces Graham Rix for 3 weeks.
Another Sunday morning, another defeat and now it could well mean a New Manager coming to the club, you just had to feel some remorse for Graham Rix yesterday with so much resting on this result, the players gave all they could for him, but that wasn't enough and he was totally devastated after the game, Firoz Kassam was the first on the phone in on Radio Oxford yesterday to express his views, he certainly has some worrying times ahead of him, all we need is for the fans to back him in whatever he does in the coming days and try and get our club back on the straight and narrow.
As Rix said in the Radio interview-We have stuff in the pipe line, we can bring in up to 5 new players to try and bring things round, but the 5 players need to be the right ones!!!, The chairman put great faith in the manager by allowing him to bring in 12 players during the pre-season, they haven't exactly done him many favours, though that doesn't mean that all 12 are not pulling their weight, they just aren't being organised properly.
After the game anyone that was listening to the back end of Radio Oxford's phone in might have been treated to a comedy show as Jerome and Rosie were reduced to tears after a golden gaff on air, Rosie could not stop laughing and it was a very funny situation, there was only 10 of us left in the ground and the laughter must have been heard from outside the ground.
U's fans at Rochdale
Rix Out poster
Rosie Crying
Friday 12th November 2004
Oxford have a break from the league tomorrow when they travel to Spotlands for the first of 2 games against Rochdale in the space of 8 days, this time in the fa cup and will be without Jon Ashton who is suspended, Chris Tardif should be back in goal though to replace Alan Judge.
More later...
Tuesday 9th November 2004
Oxford Youth team lost 2-0 last night in the 1st round of the youth FA cup at Cirencester Town, a goal after 9 minutes and an own goal on 87 saw the home team through.
Monday 8th November 2004
Oxford United FC and their fans are in total shock after hearing that
Former player Scott McNiven has been diagnosed with testicular Cancer, we
all send best wishes to Scott and hope that he makes a good and speedy
recovery, Scott should have really still been an Oxford player, but was
released at the end of the season despite a campaign by one fan to bring him
back to the club in the pre-season, he is a great lad Scott and is well
respected in the game and every is devastated for him.
Go along to Cirencester tonight to see the Oxford United Youth team in the
FA Youth cup, can't be as bad as the first team, kick off is at 7.30pm.
Last night on BBC2's match of the day 2 the presenter stated that all
football supporters aren't given the respect that they deserve from the
players they go to watch and shell out their hard earned cash on, how right
was he, fans are starting to lose patients with the players who are sponging
their clubs dry and not putting in performances to match their pay packet,
no names mentioned, but Oxford has atleast 3 of them.
These Pictures below may just cheer you all up....if they
don't.......Nothing will.
Dancers strut their stuff-And looks like it was a chilly afternoon!!
She Fell Over-She Fell Over-and boy did she...................
Now how we could do with entertainment like this at Oxford
Like the Southend Strikers-they lacked nothing up front......
Sunday 7th November 2004
Another defeat, more excuses, more misery, Oxford United at the lowest
ebb and position they have ever been in since joining the Football League 42
years ago, Alan Judge would have been 2 years old when Oxford played their
first game in the league, yesterday he beat the record for the oldest player
in an Oxford team, a record that he set in the last couple of years and now
stands at 44 years old, He showed great determination yesterday to hold
Southend at bay, but could not do it all on his own with no one around him
putting in a performance in the 2nd half, the last 40 minutes were totally
shocking and to be honest it was the worst display I have ever witnessed by
an Oxford team-by the 10 outfield players anyway, there was no motivation,
no commitment, no talking (Excluding arguing with each other) and the
players ran straight for the tunnel at the final whistle, too ashamed to
face the 409 fans that had travelled down to the coast to cheer them on and
they did just that-cheer them on, why is OUR club being killed by players
that are not up to the job, has-beens that are using our club on their road
to oblivion, On our journey down we were confident that we were going to get
beat by 4 or 5 goals, nothing to do with the goalkeeping crisis, but the
rest of the team in front of the keeper, good job we enjoyed ourselves on
the sea front before the game because we were totally justified thinking
them thoughts on the way down, we knew how dreadful the present team was and
they showed us how right we were, lets just say the journey home was a
sombre one.
The Mood in the ground after all the fans had gone was subdued too, Jerome
on Radio Oxford had to calm one of his phone callers down and his
voice could be heard across the stand, CALM DOWN! was shouted 3 or 4 times
then we realised it came from the box they were in which meant that some of
the Oxford fans were getting pretty Irate on the other end, If it was you we
would like to know what you said...(Big Grin).
More later with pictures of the Dancers for you.
Oxford Fan and Celebrity Jim Rosenthal (Right) doing the Half Time DRAW!
Tuesday 2nd November 2004
Ox Vox have organised a Quiz night for Thursday 4th November,
OxVox Oxford United's independent supporters trust,
will be holding the popular quiz nights at the Priory pub adjacent to the
Kassam Stadium, starting at 7.30 prompt. All are welcome and teams of 2, 3
or 4 can enter - singles can join a team; £2 per person (£1 for OxVox
members). Questions will cover general knowledge, sport and Oxford United.
Also on Friday November 12th, Ox Vox will be running a stall jointly with
the football club in Templars Square shopping centre in Cowley from 10am to
3pm, selling club merchandise. This follows a similar event in August run
solely by OxVox. This will be an excellent opportunity to buy Christmas
presents and to meet people from the football club and OxVox.
Congratulations to whoever won these superb boots pictured, they used to
belong to Tommy Mooney and I got my hands on them at the weekend before they
were given away in the prize draw.
Rix and Kassam after the final whistle